Do Subtitles Really Help Learning? Captioning In The Classroom

Jared Cooney Horvath is a globally recognized Science of Learning expert committed to helping teachers, students and parents achieve better outcomes through applied brain and behavioral science.

Subtitles In The Classroom

Generally speaking, the evolution of subtitles and video captioning has been a net positive.

Just about every video on YouTube, Netflix and other major multimedia platforms now comes automatically equipped with captioning.

And this is great … because how else could we hope to keep up with what they’re saying on Downton Abbey?

But what about the use of captioning in the classroom?

Well, when it comes to education, it’s almost universally accepted that captioning has zero downside … and it’s easy to understand why.

Captions can effectively support students with learning disabilities, aid non-native speakers, and boost the usefulness of videos with poor audio quality.

But what about learning? Do subtitles and captions actually support deep learning and comprehension?

Well, if you ask a student, they’ll almost certainly say ‘yes’. In fact, a vast majority of students use captioning at least some of the time (regardless of whether they need them or not) … while over 90% of these students believe subtitles are helpful for learning.

But is this actually the case? In this video, I examine a research article that aims to answer this question.

Here are some of the questions I tackle in this installment:

Give it a watch, and let me know what you think in the comments.

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Regards,

P.S. There’s always a bit of confusion about the difference between subtitles and captions … so here’s a quick summary:

• Subtitles assume an audience can hear the audio, but need the dialogue provided in text form as well.
• Captions assume an audience cannot hear the audio, and need a text description of what they would otherwise be hearing … which is why captions not only supplement the dialogue, but also notate other parts of the soundtrack (including music, background noises, ringing phones and other relevant audio cues).
• Open captions are always visible as they are ‘burnt’ into the video, while closed captions can be toggled on or off.